Children in England receive 341 GLP-1 prescriptions in four months

Children in England were issued 341 GLP-1 prescriptions from April to July this year, including 15 for under-12s, Guardian Health reported on Nov. 14, citing NHS Business Services Authority FOI data.

The numbers matter because GLP-1 medicines, originally developed for type 2 diabetes, are moving into paediatric obesity care as National Child Measurement Programme data put obesity at 10.7% among reception-year children and 22.8% in year 6.

The Guardian Health investigation also reported 419 prescriptions for under-18s in the 2025-26 financial year, including 10 for children younger than 12. The data cover prescriptions in England dispensed in community settings anywhere in the UK.

The reported totals do not include private prescriptions, prison dispensing or hospital dispensing. Guardian Health said that means the figures are likely to understate overall use, and it said it was unclear whether every GLP-1 prescription was primarily for weight loss.

GLP-1 medicines mimic a hormone involved in blood-sugar control and appetite regulation. Wegovy and Mounjaro have become widely known as weight-loss drugs, but paediatric use raises different questions because children are still growing.

Martin Whyte, professor of metabolic medicine at the University of Surrey, said the prescription numbers were small compared with the scale of childhood obesity, but children taking the drugs needed specialist care. “The important thing is that children who start them do so within specialist services, with support for diet, growth and wellbeing, and a plan for the long term,” he said.

Whyte said monitoring should include “growth and puberty, nutritional intake, mental health and eating behaviours, and side effects.” He added that weight often returns after treatment stops and that long-term data in growing children remain limited.

NHS England began piloting Complications from Excess Weight clinics in 2021 for children aged two to 16 with severe obesity. In May, NHS England said almost 6,500 children had been referred to those clinics, including more than 400 younger than four.

Hundreds of young people have received weight-loss medicines through those services, Guardian Health reported, although only some clinics can obtain funding for GLP-1 medicines and hospital pharmacies typically dispense them. One private children’s clinic has previously said it had more than 200 patients receiving the injections.

Dunia Ismail, a consultant paediatrician who runs a Complications from Excess Weight clinic, said specialists had generally kept use to children aged 12 and older, but were considering broader use if licences allow it. “We have been sticking to 12 [years], although now we are looking at expanding that to eight-plus once licence-approved,” she said.

The World Health Organization said in guidelines last month that obesity medicines, including GLP-1s, should not be given to children under 10. Novo Nordisk, which produces Wegovy and Victoza, has reported recent trial data involving 165 children aged 6 to under 12 that suggested GLP-1s can help young children with obesity.

Julian Hamilton-Shield, professor in diabetes and metabolic endocrinology and a clinician at the Bristol Complications from Excess Weight clinic, said semaglutide was typically used after dietary, nutritional and psychological support had not worked. He said many children treated in these clinics had serious related conditions, including type 2 diabetes, obstructive sleep apnoea, liver disease or intracranial hypertension.

“Nobody’s saying that every child who’s a bit heavy should have a GLP-1,” Hamilton-Shield said. The next issue for clinicians and regulators is how far paediatric prescribing should extend, especially below age 12, and what long-term follow-up should be required.

Source: Guardian Health investigation, Nov. 14.

Atlas360 reports health research and does not provide medical advice.